Different types of printing systems are available and used to print newspapers, books, and other documents. These conventional printing systems often include components such as in-line presses, common-impression-cylinder presses, and blanket-to-blanket presses. Some conventional printing systems are used to produce printing on large streams of paper, such as paper that is three meters wide. Some conventional printing systems are also used to produce printing on quickly moving paper, such as paper that is moving at twenty meters per second. Some conventional printing systems also incorporate multiple printing steps, such as systems that support the sequential application of inks of different colors or appearance, laquers or other surface sealants, and so forth.
It is often necessary to monitor the quality of the printing provided by a conventional printing system. As an example, it is often desirable to monitor the quality of the printing on newspapers to ensure that the conventional printing system is operating properly. This may also allow problems with the conventional printing system to be detected and resolved. However, conventional print quality monitoring techniques typically suffer from various problems. For example, conventional print quality monitoring techniques are often slow and expensive. Also, there is often a small or limited amount of space in which a print quality monitoring instrument can be installed and used. This typically limits the functionality that can be provided by the instrument.